Ramp-Prosciutto Rolls with Blue Suede Moo Cheese (Keswick Creamery)

I was just talking on twitter with Michelle and/or Ona of Eatniks.com. They were wondering what to do with some ramps they had just bought. I mentioned a few ideas then realized that I might as well expand those into a more than 140 character post.

We hit our secret ramp patch today and came home with a backpack stuffed with one of the easiest-to-forage wild foods out there.

You don’t have to go out and dig up your own though; they are popping up right now in farmer’s markets.

The easiest way to use them: clean them and trim any rootlets from the end. Cut off the leaves and set aside. Sauté the bulbs in butter or olive oil for 5-10 minutes. Tear the leaves into bite size pieces and add to the  pan with a splash of water. Cover, reduce heat, and cook until the greens have wilted (~5 min.).

(Add morel mushrooms and/or fiddlehead ferns if you can find them)

The classic way to do this is to cook them in bacon fat, but you can always cook the bacon and add it later.

Our must-make ramp meal is Grilled Trout stuffed with ramp bulbs and fresh ricotta from Keswick Creamery or Blue Ridge Dairy.  If you REALLY want to ratchet –up the fresh/local/seasonal angle of the meal, you can use yellow perch that you caught yourself instead.

I have also used the leaves like wrappers to make prosciutto – blue cheese rolls (Blue Suede Moo from Keswick is a good one for this).

Last year I used them on pizza with a few dried figs and an egg. In fact eggs and ramps are fine companions, especially in omelets.

Here is a photo set of our ramp adventures of the past.

The first few years we were a part of his CSA, Leigh Hauter always had a few pigs running around part of his property. They were not only for meat but were intended as (yet another) deterrent to the deer; the theory was that the pigs would smell things up so bad up and down their enclosure that the deer would stay away. It sort of worked; the deer stayed out of the pigs enclosures and instead assaulted the fields by alternative vectors. Leigh’s pigs had from ¼ to ½ and acre of forest to root around in, they had plenty of space to remain active, and in addition to some supplemental grain, they ate roots and whatever vegetables were too far gone to go out in the shares.

They made for some really good eatin’, too. This was the first meat I had ever had where I not only knew the farmer but knew the animals. I thought that the fresh, rich taste was just because it was not coming from some mass-producing factory farm, but I discovered that there was something else to it.

What do you do with a whole pig? Make bacon, of course!

Leigh got tired of having to deal with pigs, so he stopped raising them and instead hooked us up with his friend Susannah who raises pigs and poultry on her farm in southern Fauquier County. She also grows corn organically and uses that as feed for her animals.  Now, do not get me wrong, Susannah raises some fine hogs, but there just seemed to be something missing from the meat we were used to having.

It did not really hit me until I was at Eastern Market one day and saw that Jose Canales had a sign up for Jamon Iberico. This is a very special and very rare type of cured ham from Spain. The hogs are sent up into the mountains to forage and gorge themselves on acorns before being slaughtered. Because of their diet and exercise the pig’s meat has a distinctly rich flavor which is further enhanced and concentrated by curing and aging. Mr. Canales sliced off about a quarter pound for me after giving me the short version of why Iberico is so special.

He did not have to try very hard; I told him about how I had noticed the difference in taste and texture between the hogs we had purchased and he nodded his head in agreement.

So when I saw what Bill had to offer, I knew I would have to make room in my freezer.

This is Kevin Bacon, the stud pig from Babes in the Woods. He is a cross of a Duroc boar with Tamworth sows. Handsome, isn't he....

It took two years for the timing to work out (we had to finish the pig we had, then we bought a quarter beef and we had to finish that) but we finally have one of his pigs.

Up Next: This Years’ Pig, Part II: Adventures in Curing

Did I mention I cure my own meats? Here’s a little photo to wet your appetite for part two of the story.

Let the curing begin.... this will be Guanciale - Jowl Bacon (More on this in Part Two)

He was Pushed!

The perils of CSA deliveries.

We had seedless sugar baby watermelons last week. I managed to drop only one of them; I opened the back of the van and it escaped. For the delivery I laid all of them out on the grass and let people pick theirs. One shareholder came around with, as he usually does, his five-year-old son. Paul had a good deal of fun rolling them around in the grass, which I did not mind at all. But then he picked one up and hurled it. Without my having to say a word about it the boy’s father scolded him, “We do not throw the watermelons! That one’s ours now.” he said picking up the cracked fruit. I felt relieved; the dad did not ask if there were any extra he could take instead of the damaged one. A small example of a responsible shareholder and parent.

No more sweet potatoes!

Our fruit share is not grown on the farm; Leigh goes out once or twice a week to the orchards and farms in his area and purchases peaches, apples, and such from them. It is still local fruit, and still community supported agriculture and he is upfront about the arrangement when people sign on.

So he and his wife, Wenonah, were out at one of these orchards when Wenonah noticed that the farmer had crates and crates of potatoes. She asked what he was planning on doing with them. “I’ve got so many, I don’t know where I’m going to sell them” he said. It has, I believe, been a banner year for potatoes in Virginia. My sister-in-law’s CSA has given her so many potatoes that she is pretty much sick of them, ‘I’m potatoes everyday. Sometimes twice a day. Potato soup, potato salad….” she went on a while, suffice it to say, she has been getting a LOT of potatoes in her share.

Wenonah decided that these potatoes might be a good addition to the shares this week, so they drove off with a few crates. They’re relatively small, but tasty, sort of like new potatoes, and boil up quite quickly.

They are also a welcome departure from the sweet potatoes which have been a staple of OUR shares the past few weeks!

Now We're Just Showing Off...

Menu: Cibola Farms Bison Hot Dogs wrapped in Torpedo onions and beet greens from Tree and Leaf Farm and topped with Fields of Grace Gouda and homemade Green Tomato Ketchup. Tomatoes on the side from Bull Run Mountain Farm (also the source of the green tomatoes) with Fields of Grace mozzarella. The buns are Homemade from Moutoux Orchard Whole Wheat Flour.

The hot dogs were excellent; the inch-plus wide links come fully cooked and had enough flavor that we did not feel like we were eating something meant for kids. I halved the torpedo onions and wrapped some of the larger shells around the dogs before putting them in the frying pan with a bit of water. They are good onions, but I undercooked them and had a hard time biting through the thick pieces.   The beet greens were intended to add a bit of astringency to the dish. The raw milk Gouda was perfect for this, I put it on at the end so it would melt just a touch. Fields of Grace’s Mozzarella is the pre-packaged low-moisture kind and I must confess a strong preference for the fresh variety. Still, F of G’s is far better than any store-bought version and I would love to try it on a pizza sometime.

For the buns I used a fairly straightforward recipe for an old issue of Cooking Light (I checked the site and can’t find it there, so no link) which i have used again and again with various flours in different proportions. This time I used 100% whole wheat flour from Moutoux. It was a little dense since it was all whole-wheat, but rose and baked well. It is a bit more coarse than, say, King Arthur’s w.w. flour. The only real quibble that I have with Moutoux is that the paper bags the flour comes in are a bit too thin! One more sharp turn on the way home and I might have floured the car. I will get their flour again, but will bring some appropriate plastic tub with me to put it in right away.

Tomatoes, Pluots and ... Cookies in the nomming bowl? How did those get there?

It was HOT today, but that didn’t seem to slow things down at the Takoma Park farmers market.  It was one of the biggest crowds I’ve seen all summer.   We (me and Art D.)  didn’t have a shopping list,  so there was nothing on the agenda to find today — other than fill the “nomming” bowl, of course.  And fill it we did.

The Pluots (plum/apricot) from Blackrock Orchard were one of the first things that really our attention today.  They looked yummy and ripe.  I’ve been hearing about pluots in the media lately because of the new book by Chip Brantley: The Perfect Fruit: Good Breeding, Bad Seeds, and the Hunt for the Elusive Pluot.   Yes, there is now a book about the Pluot. Are these going to be the newest “it” food?  Will they become the pomegranate or bacon of 2010?  Only time will tell!

Tomatoes were fantastic again this week too.  It was a veritable “tomato extravaganza!”

Tomato Extravaganza...Sunday! SunDAY! SUNDAY!!

Potomac Vegetable Farm had an amazing selection (photo above), in all colors shapes and sizes.  To be fair, a lot of the vendors did — but PVF had the best sign and they are who we bought from this week.   Plus, they were cutting up lots of yummy samples for me to taste.  One of the employees was even helping promote the tomatoes by chomping down on a HUGE yellow tomato like it was an apple.

We were also happy to see J&L Edleman Homestead Farms back — they were missing a couple of weeks ago.  I picked up a couple of their great “snack size” cantaloupes.  They are always really sweet and the small size makes them less threatening.  Don’t judge me. 

Finally, of course, we get to the cookies.  One of the great things about Takoma Park Farmers Market is the community atmosphere.  Kids were having a bake sale to raise money for two charities, and well — it was chocolate chip cookies!   We bought a half-dozen and into the “nomming” bowl they went!  And then promplty into our stomachs.

Please note the subtle farm humor...

My stop was and is the only one to get fennel. The 25 or so bulbs were the sole survivors of the planting.

What did you get this week?

Don't squeeze me!

Seriously. Excerpt from the newsletter:
Full article and more stories from the farm here:
www.bullrunfarm.com/newsletters.html

“Fresh, picked that morning ,tomatoes are different. They are full of water. Juice. The fruit walls are tender.If they are given a squeeze, they go squish. As in, tomato juice. And if you put them in a box and shipped them half way around the world what would come out at the other end is tomato juice, not tomatoes.

“This lesson took me a number of years to learn.

“Every year I would just put out our tomatoes like I do the rest of the vegetables, and let people pick their own.

“Each day, as I drove home, 20-25% of the tomatoes I had picked in the morning, would be sitting in the back of the truck, all squished up.

“I thought, at the time, this was just the price of doing business. ‘Tomatoes’, I thought. ‘just don’t travel well. You need to pick more to account for the short shelf life.’

“Then, one year, because we were having a poor crop of tomatoes, instead of just putting the tomatoes out for people to pick themselves, I gave the tomatoes out.

“And I learned something.

“Only 1 or 2% of the tomatoes got squished in transit.

“I found out that what was damaging all of those perfectly good tomatoes was people picking them up, giving them a little squeeze, just like they would do to a corporate tomato in the grocery store.

“But, unlike the corporate tomato, ours would go squish.

“Local, homegrown tomatoes, are a completely different creature than those corporate vegetables. They are full of juice. They can’t handle being squeezed.

“Oh well.

“So, to make the story short, when you are picking out your tomatoes, just look at them, only touch the tomatoes you are going to put in your bag. And if, by chance, you don’t particularly like that tomato after picking it up, put it in your bag anyway, and get another one.”

What did you get this week?

Pretty Tomatoes at the Takoma Park Farmers Market

I’ve been hearing lots about the problems with tomato blight, so I was really  hoping that there would still be fresh tomatoes at the farmers’ market today — and I was not disappointed.  I only had one recipe for the week that required tomatoes, but does that really matter?   I found all manner of tomatoes in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  I was on the hunt for cherry tomatoes and love that they have party-colored pints at several stands. There’s also plenty of good ole red ones for those that are into that classic look. 

I also found plenty of  my new love — cantaloupe.  It’s not something I like a couple of years ago, but somehow my tastebuds have decided that fresh cantaloupe is a good thing.  I bet all I’d had before was cantaloupe that had been picked pre-peak so it would ship, and had never really reached its full sugar sweetness.   I find that I like the little “snack size” ones the best. Last week I grabbed an ambrosia cantaloupe from L &J Homestead Farm.  This week Homestead was noticeably absent (hope they’re okay), so I picked up some from Waterpenny Farm.  I got an ambrosia and something else, which I can’t remember the name of!

I also have to mention how awesome it is that the market was packed in the pouring rain.  Okay, it was mostly drizzling with short downpours — but it’s still great.  There’s nothing wrong with getting a little wet in the summer people!  It’s refreshing, right?

Here’s what we got this week:

• Kohlrabi
• cabbage
• Red lettuce mix
• garlic scapes
• basil
• radishes
• purslane
• shiso
• epazote
• Ornamental hot pepper plant

Early in his CSA career, our farmer would sometimes have to glean the fields of purslane to make shares. Now he grows it from seed.

Purslane is a succulent, tangy green best known for being a weed.  But it is a very tasty weed. Stems and leaves can be used, preferably raw, to add a bit of a lemony flavor to salads. Some sources say that this, and not parsley,  was the green originally used in tabbouleh.

What did you get this week?

I hit the Bloomingdale market this morning, which is probably the closest farmers market to my house.  It’s really a nice little farmers market with good variety of produce, meats, and prepared foods.

What I was really excited to find was fresh gooseberries at Reid’s Orchards.  I get very excited about these tart little berries, because they are just hard to find.  Plus, I like saying “gooseberries.”  It feels very Jane Austen, or something fabulously old-fashioned.

I still haven’t decided if these will go in a tart or if I’m just going to save them for my lunch this week.  I think they would look extraordinarily cute in my bento-style lunch box.

I also bought some delicious red currants.  I’m not sure if I like them because they are so pretty, or because they taste good.  As long as I eat them, I suppose it doesn’t matter.

I don’t know why I finally figured it out this year, but Summer Solstice is when the sour cherries are ready for picking!  My husband introduced me to the joy of sour cherries 10+ years ago, and now we go picking every year.  They are next to impossible to buy in a store, so you really do need to head out to a pick-your-own farm to get them.  But, they are fun to pick — unlike some other fruits that will remain nameless.

We usually go to Rock Hill Orchard in Mount Airy, MD, but there are many other farms that have sour cherries.    You do need to plan ahead for sour cherry season, because it lasts maybe two weeks.  We picked only about 15-20lbs this year, which for us is a small haul.  We really aren’t planning on making the huge amounts of jam we (okay, my husband) usually makes.   I’m sure we’ll freeze or can a few for pies in the winter.

So far, I’ve made Sour Cherry Crumbcake, which is in the oven right now and Sour Cherry Pound Cake – recipe detailed below.  I think I’ll make sour cherry clafouti for breakfast over the weekend, too.

My poundcake recipe is based on one from The Best Quick Breads: 150 Recipes for Muffins, Scones, Shortcakes, Gingerbreads, Cornbreads, Coffeecakes, and More, but I’ve lighted it up over the years a bit.

Ketzirah’s Not-so-deadly Poundcake:
For the sour cherry version, add 2 tbs of cornstarch or tapioca starch and a 1/2 cup fresh sour cherries — very well drained.

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup canola
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup Fat Free Plain Greek Yogurt
• 2 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract (Almond w/Sour Cherries)

Butter and Flour bunt pan. Preheat oven to 325 for dark metal pan and 350 for light metal pan.

In mixer, cream butter, canola, and flour until light and fluffy (as it can be w/canola) — about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs, one at a time — beat well after each egg.

In a small bowl mix flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.  Add to wet ingredients in three batches, alternating with yogurt,  with mixer running at low speed.  Add vanilla or almond extract with last addition of yogurt.  Beat all together till light and fluffy.  Fold in cherries, if using.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake in center of oven for about 75 minutes.  Sometimes you need to put a piece of tin foil over the top at about 60 mintues to keep it from getting too crispy.  Let sit in pan for about 10 minutes before turning onto wire rack. (this is REALLY important — especially if you add the cherries)

I’ve made this recipe so many times and it’s always great.  It’s a great base poundcake on it’s own or for “tarting up” with freshly picked sour cherries.

Questions about Sour Cherry picking?  Ask away!  We’re here to help!